The AWS Storage Gateway service seamlessly enables hybrid cloud storage between on-premises environments and the AWS Cloud. It combines a multi-protocol storage appliance with highly efficient network connectivity to deliver local performance with virtually unlimited scale. Customers use it in remote offices and datacenters for hybrid cloud workloads involving migration, bursting and storage tiering.

The Storage Gateway virtual appliance connects directly to your local infrastructure as a file server, as a local disk volume, or as a virtual tape library (VTL). This seamless connection makes it simple for organizations to augment existing on-premises storage investments with the high scalability, extreme durability and low cost of AWS cloud storage.

AWS Storage Gateway Features

Connect as a File Server - The File Gateway configuration offers on-premises servers and applications a network file share. File data is cached on the File Gateway for local performance and converted to objects stored in Amazon S3. You can protect your objects through native tools like versioning and cross-region replication.

Connect as a Local Disk - The Volume Gateway configuration connects to on-premises servers and applications as a local disk. Data in these volumes can be transferred into Amazon S3 cloud storage and accessed through the Volume Gateway. Store data locally for the highest performance (with snapshot backups to the cloud), or blend latency and scale by storing frequently-accessed data locally with "cooler" data in the cloud.

Connect as a Virtual Tape Library - The Tape Gateway configuration replaces backup tapes and tape automation equipment with local disk and cloud storage. Your existing backup and recovery software writes native backup jobs to virtual tapes stored on the Tape Gateway. Virtual tapes can be migrated into Amazon S3 and eventually archived into Amazon Glacier for the lowest cost. Data is accessed through your backup application and the backup catalog maintains complete visibility for all backup jobs and tapes.

Transfer Data Into and Out of the AWS Cloud - Storage Gateway automatically buffers on-premises data and efficiently moves it into (and out of) cloud storage services. This reduces the time and cost of moving data between your site and the AWS Cloud. Optimisations such as multipart management, delta transfers, bandwidth throttling, and bandwidth scheduling are standard for all interfaces.

AWS Storage Gateway Benefits

Integrated - Hybrid cloud storage means your data can be used on-premises and also be available in multiple AWS Cloud storage services. This brings the full AWS portfolio of security and management services to bear on your data, such as AWS KMS, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), SNS workflows, Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail. Once data is moved to AWS, you have access to additional compute, database and big data services like Amazon EC2, Amazon Redshift and Amazon EMR.

Performance - Storage Gateway caches data locally providing local disk and network performance for your most active data, with optimised data transfers occurring to cloud tiers in the background. Users and applications continue to operate using a local storage model while you take advantage of a cloud back-end.

optimised Transfers - Compression, encryption and bandwidth management are built in. Storage Gateway manages local cache offloads to the cloud based on your desired performance parameters, so you can fine-tune the balance of latency and scale for your workloads. Only data that changes is transferred, so you can optimise your network bandwidth.

Simple - No disruptions required. Download and install the virtual machine, select an interface and assign local cache capacity. The advanced networking and protocol support are all included, which means no clients to install, no new rack space, power or cooling and no network and or firewall settings to tune. And the virtual appliance can run both on-premises as well as in AWS.

Cloud Scale - Cloud storage is delivered and billed on demand, so you always have just the right amount. "Burst" workloads can expand and contract, backup and archive storage can expand without up-front media costs, and you can provision additional storage capacity without new hardware.

Durable and Secure - Data stored through AWS Storage Gateway benefits from the durability and security embedded in AWS cloud storage services. Storage Management tools like versioning, cross-region replication, lifecycle management policies, and Vault Lock can lower the cost of long-term archiving, simplify audit and compliance requirements, and safeguard all of your data, not just the parts kept on-premises. All data is transferred securely and encrypted when at rest.

How can I use AWS Storage Gateway ?

Hybrid Cloud Workloads - Big data, cloud bursting, or cloud data migration workloads require architectures that accommodate local capacity and a connection to a central cloud storage repository. Storage Gateway helps you manage workloads that run across both your organization and the AWS Cloud.

Backup and Restore (Tape Replacement)- Storage Gateway is a drop-in replacement for tape and tape automation, and integrates with leading industry backup software packages. Get the performance of local disk and a low-cost highly scalable cloud back-end without disrupting current systems.

Disaster Recovery - Storage Gateway can take snapshots of your local volumes and store those snapshots in Amazon EBS. Snapshot can be the starting point for an Amazon EBS volume, which you can then attach to an Amazon EC2 instance. In the event of a local site disaster simply set up your applications in the cloud or in a different datacenter, and restore your snapshot to keep running.

Tiered Storage - Expanding on-premises NAS and SAN storage arrays consumes time, capital, and rack space. Storage Gateway gives you a flexible buffer that can grow and shrink as needed, extending the life of your investments and helping your organization gracefully manage capacity fluctuations.

clients testimonials

"WTL showed a thorough understanding of TRL's needs especially the wider IT infrastructure to which the new system would interface. WTL worked very hard to meet delivery deadlines and were accommodating when these changed!" - Mohamed Ismail- Research Engineer, Toshiba Research

"One of the biggest factors in choosing WTL was their experience and professionalism which gave us the confidence that the job would be completed on time and to budget." - Pete Gain, Enterprise Technology Specialist, SAS UK

"WTL performed an audit of existing support contracts and cross referenced existing infrastructure to produce an asset registry at that point in time" - United Utilities